India has a unique and wonderful culture embracing the diversities of castes, languages and religions. It is a land of different castes, creeds etc. Inspite of these divergences there was always a general feeling of oneness and Indianness. All the cultural traditions of India are characterized by unity in diversity. The fundamental unity was never lost inspite of all changes and developments.
During the great Indian Freedom Movement people with difference of languages, regions, castes and creeds etc. joined their hands to drive out British power from the soil of India. It truly speaks of the concept of "United we stand, divided we fall".
But in recent years, unprecedented havoc of communalism, terrorism, caste-ism, lingua-ism and regionalism raised its ugly heads in different pockets of India. All these forces and factors do pose a challenge to India’s unity and integrity and therefore conscious efforts will have to be made by all concerned to preserve the same.
For binding the people in the sentiment of oneness i.e. in the bond of nationalism or what we call National Integration, it is necessary to all to eliminate and evaporate the feeling of regionalism, communalism, Lingua-ism etc. amongst themselves. In a contemporary society Media plays a very important role in this regard. Without Media, people in societies would be isolated, not only from the rest of world but from the Government, Law and Order, neighboring Towns and Cities. Media is the most powerful tool of communication. It helps promoting the right things on right time. It gives a real exposure to the mass audience about what is right or wrong. Even though media is linked with blaming fake news every time, for example, on terrorist attacks by saying directly Muslim fundamentalist hands in attack without properly investigating. But on the safe side, it helps a lot to inform us about the realities as well, for example, the Washington Post brought down President Richard Nixon; Indira Gandhi convinced the world’s press to support against Pakistan–in 1971 struggle to free Bangladesh; and it was newspaper coverage of the Bofors Gun Scandal that cost Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, then, his coveted portfolio. Blanket News coverage and, for the first time, graphic color Television pictures of the horrors and cruelty of the war in Vietnam helped in bringing that to an end – and it was partly West German’s television portrayal of life beyond the communist world that caused people of eastern Europe to rise up and end the cold war.
Thus media has a constructive role to play for the society; and so today the News Channels and even some Newspapers are mouthpieces of some social issues, which help us to estimate the realities of lives. It is the fact that in most of the eras, media were not being given free and fair chances to explore the issues of society more openly than it is being given now; but we can’t deny this fact that the issues were always raised in order to provide justice to the people.
But unfortunately the media is now fragmented. Today we have newspapers that have caste, community and regional favorites. We have News television channels that though do not come out publicly but vouch for a particular community, not to serve social interests but to serve the larger political interests. You have newspapers that claim to don the role of vanguard and trumpet to be independent yet pursue the agenda discreetly.
This fragmentation of media has become so serious that there are very few visible options left to conclude that a particular media house, newspaper or television is independent. Even if somebody is genuinely independent, it has become very difficult to prove its independence.
Amid all this comes the news value; or the value of commitment towards the society, commitment towards the Nation, and finally, commitment towards the National integration. Today every literate home needs a newspaper, when it comes to television set literacy does not matter. Circulation figures and television ratings apart, no media in this country wants to compromise on National Integration. Unity in diversity is the most popular phrase among the netas or neta-turned editor or owners of television channels or newspapers.
So what do we do? Do we live with it? Certainly not! We cannot afford to accept divisive politics; it can be by anybody, media, executive or the legislature. A cautious editorial approach, that identifies the agenda of those pursuing divisive politics, is the way out. It is only possible when you have qualified independent editors (again a point for big debate); independent editor who ensure that it is the nation that comes first.
India needs a free press, or media, in particular the poor of India need it. If public attention cannot be drawn to problems – such as deep alienation of our people in the North East, or the plight of the tribal peoples– the problems will not go away, in fact, they will fester and eventually blow up, blowing much of the country with them.
It is unfortunate that most of the press is biased. They are projecting what they want instead of projecting the reality. Access to people demands a very responsible behavior. Their role should be to spread love instead of cultivating hatred, which is of no use. They have to play crucial rule in educating the people and to provide them clear picture of what is going on in the world because ignorance is a major problem. They should not over proportionate. Factual reporting is the essence of journalism and if the press starts reporting facts there would be a lot of betterment in the society. These are the major drawbacks that have to be tackled for the media to be active participant in the National Integration process.
Thus the country and the people today need a free press even more than they did decades ago – during independence struggle, as other institutions that could ensure accountability – the legislature, the judiciary and so on – have become progressively ineffective.
So, at last to conclude, it can be said that Media can play an effective role in promoting national integration but only when the media, as well as Media men are committed and self dependable. They should express social responsibilities that would invariably sustain the growth of micro ethno systems in the nation, help the political terrain, and eliminate friction in human relationships and other sectors of the country. As the watch dog of society, media is responsible and accountable to the people and can also help in the elimination of social vices confronting humanity and National Integrity.
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Dr. Ashiq
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